The long night of physical slavery

Sri Lanka is still in one hell of a mess burning in its worst ever socio-economic and political crisis since independence in 1948. Five months after taking office, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) government are taking practical steps to pull the country out of its crisis of crisis. In the meantime, the opposition or another public uprising is building up demanding that the economic calamity be solved, the cost of living brought down and millions of people or more than 25% of our population be pulled out of the poverty trap. In such a mess and mudhole, we have little or no time to think of let alone taking some action regarding one of the world’s biggest crises—the abolition of slavery which continues in devious, if not devilish ways though we presume we are living in a modern and sophisticated world with smart phones and other social media platforms, the most exciting being artificial intelligence.

In December, the United Nations marks the international day for the abolition of slavery. In a statement, the world body says that slavery is not merely a historic relic. According to the  International Labour Organization (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and abuse of power.

In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world. ILO has adopted a legally binding Protocol designed to strengthen global efforts to eliminate forced labour, which entered into force in November 2016.

According to the UN, The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, on December 2, marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The focus of this day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in people, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

The UN also highlights the main forms of modern slavery. Slavery has evolved and manifested itself in different ways throughout history. Today some traditional forms of slavery still persist in their earlier forms, while others have been transformed into new ones. The UN human rights bodies have documented the persistence of old forms of slavery that are embedded in traditional beliefs and customs. These forms of slavery are the result of long-standing discrimination against the most vulnerable groups in societies, such as those regarded as being of low caste, tribal minorities and indigenous peoples.

Regarding forced labour the UN says alongside traditional forms of forced labour, such as bonded labour and debt bondage there now exist more contemporary forms of forced labour, such as migrant workers, who have been trafficked for economic exploitation of every kind in the world economy: work in domestic servitude, the construction industry, the food and garment industry, the agricultural sector and in forced prostitution.

Referring to child labour, the UN says globally, one in ten children works. The majority of the child labour that occurs today is for economic exploitation. That goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes “the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”

Regarding to trafficking the UN says according to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation includes prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. The consent of the person trafficked for exploitation is irrelevant and, if the trafficked person is a child, it is a crime even without the use of force.

The legendary Abraham Lincoln, the US President who won freedom for the coloured American slaves, says “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. While civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. says, “As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.”